“The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes.” (Proust) 

January, and a new year and time of reflection, preparation and fresh starts. A whole new year of possibilities and more things to look forward to and to anticipate (whether they happen or not as Nikki pointed out in her last blog). 

But wait a minute? Isn’t this year going to be a repeat or at least a remake of last?  

Many of us going into another lockdown, heaving sighs and resigning ourselves to the heaviness of the known.  

But here’s where there’s some hope. The situation might not have changed, but your thinking can. In truth you can’t know how you’re going to feel in this moment, you just think you will.  There is no future that’s already broken, at times it just looks that way. Which brings me back to Proust’s quote, how might we grasp the spirit of his voyager and come to everything fresh and open? How might we see whatever is in front of us with a hundred different pairs of eyes.  

Which all sounds easy to say, but where can we find that inspiration and freshness when it all looks like same again? 

It occurs to me that freshness and inspiration come hand-in-hand, and inspiration happens when we take something ‘in’. We sometimes assume that there’s nothing new to see if we’ve already seen that movie, read that book, had that experience and can be inclined not to take it in this time around. 

When we stop, notice, and really listen, with a view to ‘take-in’, what often follows is a resonance, a quickening, a bubbling over.  When we are truly inspired we experience this freshness as animation and it leads us to act effortlessly and with little thought to obstacle or difficulty. The power of the universe is flowing through us.

What I see is that inspiration isn’t in the words or the expressions or in the form. It is what we make of them, which is why you can be inspired the second, third or hundredth time you read or see something, not just the first. There it is once again in the formless, the nature of inspiration is ephemeral, transient, passing, eternal and inexhaustible. 

And with a fresh pair of eyes it’s everywhere. 

So to move from Proust to The Sound of Music, here are few of my favourite things that I’ve come to fresh this season. 

The garden. Tiny and not so tiny shoots of snowdrops and spring bulbs are tentatively poking through the frozen soil. A reminder that there is an intelligence behind all of life that allows things to emerge according to their nature. I love to wander out and watch the unfolding. 

Reading. Familiar and first time.  I’ve revisited the wonderful James P Carse’s ‘Finite and Infinite Games’ written 35 years ago.  Freshness on every page, wonder, insight and renewal. (and a reminder of the Proust quote). Nikki writes more about it here.

And Livewired, David Eagleman’s ‘Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain’ (2020). Jaw-dropping revelations and explanations of why and how our brains are being rewired and refreshed – even at this very moment. Yes you too.  Stunning.

Clients, friends and colleagues. This week, being the start of the year has been one of preparation for me; through listening and intake, often one-to-one with friends and colleagues old and new. The freshness and vibrancy in the conversations has filled me with anticipation and energy for the voyage ahead and the hundred different pairs of eyes each of us can bring to it.

Watch James Carse talk on the inspiration for his book here.